One of the frustrations of a ‘Blog is that there are stories that you know all your friends would love, but you can’t tell properly because someone else involved in the actual events might Google for it ten years hence and object violently. So let’s just say I know of a person with a serious […]
Read MoreIt’s Friday night. I’m standing outside a restaurant with two Italians and a Mexican. (No, this isn’t a joke.) Another Mexican is yet to arrive. We are in King’s Parade, the most touristy of touristy locations in the touristy town of Cambridge. Across from us is one of the most photographed buildings in the World, […]
Read MoreDo you remember the Cold War when people would talk about how things behind the Iron Curtain were nothing like as bad as the Americans said they were? Then the Curtain fell away and it turned out things were much worse. (After this revelation most of the Marxists on this side folded up their tables […]
Read MoreThis evening, driving home in the Spring sunshine from a seminar at the Laboratory of Molecular Biology I had the rare pleasure of leaning out of the window of the car and shouting “Awight, gorgeous?” at an attractive young woman and having her respond by waving at me and smiling. She was, of course, someone […]
Read MoreJohn Reid had the unenviable job of answering questions about the resignation of Clare Short, the International Development Secretary, this morning on the Today Programme. He put in a solid performance despite interviewer John Humphrys‘ “sophistry”. The accusation was accurate. Of course, Reid’s job would have been easier if he had not been forced to […]
Read MoreIf you have a moment, hop over to loveandbentspoons.com where I've tarted up my photo gallery front page and added more captions to the photos themselves. Please let me know of any bugs or mistakes you find. I really will put up my sister‘s wedding photos soon. Honestly.
Read MoreWhen I was having dinner with Adrienne and Blaise and their friends a few days ago, A&B were teasing me that I was actually Jewish. Blaise really is Jewish; Adrienne just studied physics at The Weizmann 😉 . Yesterday I was reading an interview with James Watson, who used to be the director of The […]
Read MoreA quiet morning on Radio 4’s Today Programme so there’s time for an item about the evolution of the eye (Oxford physiologist’s grand theory about species expansion undermined on air by Cambridge biologist pointing out that the former has his dates wrong), time for an interview with a slippery Sinn Fein representative (refusing to answer […]
Read MoreBryan Singer has been responsible for some of the best opening sequences of films I have ever seen, in The Usual Suspects, The X-Men, and now The X-Men 2. Unlike the first in this series, which declined steeply from a beautifully directed and affecting first few minutes to a camp-a-thon between stagey Brit lead actors, […]
Read More“As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up you are never going to make progress” Cherie Blair The poor, poor things.
Read MoreI was so busy being a cleverpants yesterday evening that I forgot to congratulate my sister publicly on her real cleverness in getting a promotion at work. Congratulations, Clare! She teaches law, adminsters a school, and still finds the time to raise “her” baby daughter, despite the lack of any obvious genetic connection. What’s Clare […]
Read MoreThere are scarcely enough quotation marks available for this entry. Edward Said, Palestinian “intellectual”, has published his latest “book”. It is 84 pages long. It costs £13. I am not suspicious of Said’s status as a Palestinian victim of Zionism*—he seems to be honest—but I become ever more suspicious of his supposed talents—how many ways […]
Read MoreThe gang had some fun yesterday and today trying to make some sense out of this development in U.S. foreign policy. (It’s an example of the short attention spans of the Western media that this news seems to have been all but buried, by the way.) We had a little online debate and the three […]
Read MoreThe Today Programme this morning broadcast a classic debate of its kind: ignorant rich-boy activist “Zac” Goldsmith argued for immediate restrictions on nanotechnology while northern working-class Nobel Laureate Prof Harry Kroto, patiently explained that it’s just chemistry. “Zac” buttressed his case with the support of speculation by experts in the field like Michael Crichton. If […]
Read MoreThe Eurovision Song Contest is beyond comment, parody, understanding. This year ‘s Austrian entry extends the scope of the event still further, by offering an extraordinary perspective on man’s place in the natural world. I can only urge you to read about it. In particular I draw your attention to the lyrics.
Read MoreWhatever happened to that Benicio Del Toro movie they trailed last year? You know, the one about the guy under investigation because of his impossibly good luck on the markets and at the gaming tables. A year later than everyone else I have found the answer. Nothing happened. There was no film. But there was […]
Read MoreAfter this announcement by Sinead O’Connor, I myself have also made a personal decision to step out of the spotlight. Fame has been good to me, but from now on I’d just like to ask that people everywhere please respect my wish for privacy and stop reading my Weblog. Additionally, I request that they stop […]
Read MoreIf you like baby pics and/or the Grassly-Khalifehs, have a look at the photos from Maryam’s 1st birthday party.
Read MoreMadonna's new album is released today. I have always believed that she has at least four talents. There are two obvious ones [shut up at the back!]: she can dance in time and she can sing in tune—albeit in a voice that induces stomach cramps in Tibetan voles. There are two important ones: she wants […]
Read MoreOh, the humanity! Britain brings its World-famous expertise in running railways to the newly liberated Iraq…
Read MoreOne of Hollywood's great traditions is to make the same sub-sub-genre of film three times in the space of five years. For example: The Sixth Sense, The Others, and What Lies Beneath. The Recruit is the first of what will inevitably be a bunch of post 9/11 CIA movies. It won't be the best—especially if […]
Read MoreAlso earlier this week, when I asked them, Claire and Judith Wrubel Levy kindly recommended books on the American Civil War to me. Claire suggested Eric Foner's Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men and Judith suggested James McPherson's Battle Cry of Freedom. An article from the mostly-subscription FT site, summarized in the Business Standard, argues […]
Read MoreHoly Moly. Two amazing searches brought punters to counsell.com yesterday evening. Perverts first. Someone was looking for "pictures of English women shitting" via search.yahoo.com. Fortunately this site is only referenced by the second page of results. Idiots second. Someone was looking for "why Chirac opposes war" via search.msn.com. The number one hit on the entire […]
Read MoreYou can Enhance Your Browsing Experience by installing something called the Google toolbar into your copy of Netscape, Mozilla or [spit!] Internet Explorer. As well has providing a built-in search facility, the bar has an indicator which tells you, on a scale of one to ten, how "important" the Google database thinks the currrent page […]
Read MoreBefore the popularity of moral relativism and other post-modern fashions in thinking, reasoning about right and wrong was less complicated. For example, tens of thousands of people dying unnecessarily every year for decades was considered worse than tens of people dying over the same time span. Scholars have since identified the fundamental flaws in this […]
Read MoreIn the days when they could take shorthand, construct a grammatical sentence, type 40 words a minute, and were bothered with little things like checking facts, journalists were viewed with contempt. Now journalist characters are frequently the heroes of Hollywood movies and university graduates fall over themselves to do unpaid work for grotty trade mags […]
Read MoreToday the doorway to the Co-op supermarket was guarded by a six-foot pig and a six-foot bumblebee. They were collecting for a children's charity. To their credit (and in typically ethical Co-op style) they made no attempt to press me for money; as if their looming blank stares weren't intimidating enough. I wonder how many […]
Read MoreOn the same page ("Special Report: France") of The Guardian online these two headlines are neighbours: "Chirac Put on Nobel Prize List" "Paris Shrine of Surrealism Dismantled" Reminiscent of the famous Tom Lehrer quote, wouldn't you say?
Read MoreI know I've been quiet lately. Mainly, when I've been online, I've been reading other Weblogs. There's been a lot of good news from Iraq about liberation and bloodless battles. Even the anti-war lobby is behaving as though the war is over, bar the vicious, ignorant, trivial griping of so-called peace-lovers. There's been bad news […]
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